[Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman] said that it was about 1 p.m. on Saturday when the maid, a 32-year-old woman, entered Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite — Room 2806 — believing it was unoccupied. Mr. Browne said that the suite, which cost $3,000 a night, had a foyer, a conference room, a living room and a bedroom, and that Mr. Strauss-Khan had checked in on Friday.

As she was in the foyer, “he came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her,” Mr. Browne said, adding, “He grabs her, according to her account, and pulls her into the bedroom and onto the bed.” He locked the door to the suite, Mr. Browne said.

“She fights him off, and he then drags her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaults her a second time,” Mr. Browne added.

Let's assume that the maid's story is true. When things like this happen, I suspect that this is a man who has had sexual encounters like this before, many times. He's gotten more cursory and abrupt over time, because he's been successful in the past. Here is an illustrious man, staying in an extremely expensive hotel room — a room with many amenities. Seems you can get whatever you want. A woman appears. Is she beautiful? He imagines that the woman is another thing the hotel subtly offers to men who pay $3,000 a night for the hotel.

Well see how this plays out. He didn't actually rape her, I gather, but twice tried to.

There is a lot of back-and-forth about phony rape charges, but seeing as how the Gray Lady seems to give it credence (on the one hand, he's a Socialist - one of the Good People; OTOH, she's a Womyn), it will be interesting to watch.

Fascinating how the Fishwrap of Record sees the most important aspect of this as French politics.

AJ Lynch said...

When I read the story, I wondered why a Socialist Party leader is head of the IMF - isn't that like a bank? And don't socialists hate banks?

They don't hate money.

bagoh20 said...

Plausible.

We need a universal safe word. How about "no". Nope that doesn't work. Try this: "I have herpies."

Sunday is a slow news day, so this fills column inches. "gloss over" is the key. How much space for how long? Some phony folksy likes to give other people lectures on reading comprehension, but fails himself.

A claim was made about news coverage and I refuted it. Nice try at making excuses and trying to redirect. Thank you for playing.

Somefeller- so you are confident this story will be big news day after day for a few weeks?

If new developments or revelations keep on coming out to feed interest in the story, yes. If not, no. That's how most crime stories (or other stories, for that matter - see how Charlie Sheen was coming out with a new attention-seeker comment every couple of days for awhile there) stay in the headlines, or don't.

The IMF, like the UN, NATO, etc., and so on, is an American invention and a good and useful one.

Where the Americans go wrong is in assuming that, since these organizations were established with good intentions, they therefore are machines that will, or at least should, run of themselves. This is not how the world works. You want good results, you have to pay close attention and, like in any other political assembly, cajole and twist arms as necessary to promote your aims.

People (particularly men, it seems) love to assume the worst about men.

I'm inclined toward the "Who the hell knows what happened?" outlook.

Quite a few possibilities:

o Woman could be psycho

o Man might have actually done what the maid says

o Man walked out naked accidentally and maid quickly figured that this was a money making opportunity

o Something entirely different than what the maid says and the NYT reported might have happened, or nothing happened at all

o Sexual services were commonly offered by maids at this hotel, but this time the maid decided to cash in on an altogether different level

The rape hysteria has so politicized this crap that it's difficult to sort things out. And, without any kind of corroborating testimony and physical evidence, looks to me like it's her word against his.

In France that wont hurt his credentials. Two elections ago , the loser was supposed to be sent to jail. Both candidates were corrupts.Clinton settled with Annita Broderick, nothing happened with Wiley, atteacked at her husband wake. Paula Jones , harrased too and he got nothing.Move onSo why would be differnet for him. Nobody has ever accused Berlusconi of rape but he has been attacked by the world prees,this man is a socialist so he will get a freepass . In the end it wont be assault, assault...

Socialist Party leader is head of the IMF . IMF supports anti market policies,old mercantilist policies.They want people to support austeriry,meaning higher taxes like this man propossed for the USA to get out of the crisis ,so governemnt can pay debts and continue spending.kissinger called for the abolition of the IMF because of the moral hazard it creates

Oh, shoot. If you want to be skeptical, you can be skeptical about everything.

But you can make an educated guess about the kind of man he is. He is a 'caviar leftist', he's had 'many affairs', he's had at least a professionally questionable affair, from which he was able to escape.

All this points to 'entitled asshole', or, if I may be bold, 'complete psychopatic bastard'. He's not a frat brother who just hired a couple of strippers to a party.

Lastly, you assume a false dichotomy between the 'rape histeria', and what we may witnessign here: no such dichotomy should exist. A lot of rape allegations are false, AND a lot of rapes go unreported, leaving serial rapist to practice their trade for years.

Sunday is a slow news day, so this fills column inches. "gloss over" is the key. How much space for how long? Some phony folksy likes to give other people lectures on reading comprehension, but fails himself.

A claim was made about news coverage and I refuted it. Nice try at making excuses and trying to redirect. Thank you for playing.

He refuted nothing. Front page means only position. As I said, "How much space for how long?".

But you can make an educated guess about the kind of man he is. He is a 'caviar leftist', he's had 'many affairs', he's had at least a professionally questionable affair, from which he was able to escape.

No, you can't make an "educated guess" that a man who's had consensual affairs is likely to be a rapist.

The character of hotel maids is not always so sainted.

A penchant toward crime and bad morals knows no economic boundaries. The rich and the poor are both inclined toward evil.

There are those who sense of pomp and self importance becomes embedded in their ego. God help you if you have to work for such assholes. Then, even worse, there are those whose pomp and self importance becomes wedded to their penis.....Look at this fat fuck. How does it come to pass that a guy who looks like this thinks that a complete stranger would want to favor him with a blow job. But compare him with Bin Laden. Bin Laden not only thought that some fifteen year old girl would like to spend her life enclosed in two wretched rooms with him, but he actually found such a creature. The pretensions of men are more than matched by the perversities of women.

Clinton, OBL, DSK now...all using women in their position. Clinton taking advantage of interns and calling them white trash. OBL marry multiple times and watching porn supposedly, and DSK thinking he can chase a maid as part of room charges.

Why are men in power so bad? Why must other men be perceived differently by ALL women because of a few bad apples?

NB: The GOP Ensign affair is also gaining ground.

Men in power are bad for all - all women and men who are not in power but who treat women equally. Because of few rotten apples, we all suffer.

All men responding here. All ready to throw a man into hell on the word of a single woman. Chivalry at work.

Some years ago, I briefly visited the men's movement groups led by Warren Farrell.

I say briefly, because the hatred and jealousy that men commonly feel toward one another made any attempts at political action impossible. Women seem to be different. They've conspired very effectively over feminism.

The men's groups couldn't even get out of the gate. The wusses hated the studs and wanted to accuse them of beating and raping women out of sheer spite. The studs tried to tell the wusses to stand up and act like men, but this only infuriated both sides.

Here you have it again. Men just want to think the absolute worst of one another. Throw in political differences and men are eager to throw one another to the dogs every time a woman whimpers.

That's why the women are winning, boys. They know how to play us, and we don't have a fucking lick of sense... not even enough to know we are being played.

The IMF, like the UN, NATO, etc., and so on, is an American invention and a good and useful one.

The IMF's sole function was made obsolete with the collapse of the system of fixed exchange rates among the world's major economies back in the early '70s. It has since evolved into a more privileged and arrogant version of the World Bank.

Whores do try to place themselves in positions where they can make some money. Whores know that they can make more money off a guy who stays at a $3,000 a night hotel than a guy who's drinking a beer in a local bar.

I'm not saying this woman was a whore.

But, are you all so green that you don't think that whores scheme to find rich men and fleece them? All you all so naive that you can't conceive that a woman would become a maid at this type of hotel precisely for the whoring opportunities?

Once again, Shouting Thomas; NO. In this specific case, based on the information available, I infer this was an actual attempted rape. It is you who insists on the proper ideological position man should adopt.

The second spanish-language link points out that Straus-Khan has already been accussed of attempted rape:

I can understand the thought progression, when someone thinks such "amenities" are normal. But if the woman says "no" instead of starting a strip tease? I'm sorry, but that becomes something else, which is that the "amenities" aren't women who are provided for they guy, but the "amenity" involved is everyone looking the other way when the powerful man forces himself on yet another woman.

@Hagar, I don't know what point you're trying to make. Every organization requires monitoring, but an institution that has to be monitored closely at all times in order to do what it's designed to do is not going to deliver decent results. This is particularly true if the bureau is a "multinational" organization.

The fact that the IMF has managed to survive for 40 years after it became utterly unnecessary is pretty good evidence of that. There's no reason to watch it closely, because it serves no real purpose. It ought to be shut down.

Yes, yes, indeed. Mr. Strau-Kahn has been accussed of attempted rape twice; other women have commented on his 'aggressive' mode of courtship, and the Polish staffer with whom he had the affair claimed she did it 'without enthusiasm'.

Only one conclusion is possible: Dominique Straus-Kahn is the unluckiest guy alive.

@ST, I'm intrigued by Dom's sexual habits as you understand them. The guy is about to check out of his room, on his way to catch a flight to Paris, and he decides to arrange for a hooker-maid to come to his room for a blowjob? This is preferable to an overnight call girl, who'd probably cost no more than the room?

OK, I suppose. But if I were that horny just before my Air France flight, I'd wait to avail myself of the services of one of their fine flight attendants. Everybody knows that they're as big a bunch of whores as hotel maids.

Didn't say I understand his habits. I said that it is entirely possible that maids in this particular hotel have been available for whoring and that he may have assumed on the spot that that was the case.

Flight attendants certainly were party girls back in the day when I knew a lot of them. They congregated in the apartment buildings around Lafayette Park in San Francisco, and were notorious for whoring parties. Of course, back in those days (the early 70s) the stewardesses were all young and pretty.

Chip S.If that is true - and it may well be, finances are not my bag - then the United States Government should go in there and see to it that it is shut down.

My gripe is about Americans - particularly Democrats - bowing down before these institutions because they are "good" and international cooperation" and all that jazz. They are political institutions, established with good intentions for valid reasons and potentially quite valuable, but they do need to be worked like any other political institutions. Otherwise "the Devil soon finds work for idle hands."

I had a friend who was a stewardess back then. She claimed that the passengers on the first class LA to NY Pan Am run had a lively sense of entitlement. Some girls didn't mind it, and occasionally welcomed a chance to star fuck. But others found it deeply offensive and would beg off.....One can safely argue that some of the time some of the men with power and money take liberties. One can also argue that some of the women some of the time are attracted to men with power and money who take liberties.....My bet is that this French guy is a scum bag, but maybe exculpatory details will make themselves known. Presumed innocent in a courtroom. Probable scumbag in the court of public opinion.

Some of this will depend on any statement from Mr. Straus-Kahn, who has not said anything (at least, for the press). So it may come down to a "he said, she said" argument over whether it was actually assault or not.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if she was planted to create a scandal and hurt his chances in the French election.

This hotel is not training its masseuse maids well enough. seriously, the European mind is one of masters and vassals. The IMF is the Emperor in today's Europe. This tart should have considered the masters acts an eminent domain. That concept is that ALL belongs to the emperor, and any life is merely on rent from the emperor to the vassal to be reclaimed at any time. The fees are paid, such as the inheritance tax, to keep anything back from the emperor claims to it. That is why private property is the American way, and collective tyrants are the European/Roman Empire way. Unless you are one of the aristocracy that is pushing this new system here, vote for Sarah Palin the first chance you get. We don't need any damn new World Order!

As she was in the foyer, “he came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her,” Mr. Browne said, adding, “He grabs her, according to her account, and pulls her into the bedroom and onto the bed.” He locked the door to the suite, Mr. Browne said.

The part about locking the door is not part of the quotation so you can't really tell whether it means locked or closed or when it occurred in the order of events. Does it talk about this elsewhere in the article that I'm missing?

I would think that if the door closed automatically, the maid would prop it open so that she would have easier access to her cart. I also assume that hotels want them to keep the door open to reassure guests that the maids are not stealing from other guests. (May not matter is she presumes that the guest has already checked out.)

I'm curious because the answer may tell something about her intent and/or his risk taking. It could be that, if he was there past checkout, he assumed that the nearby rooms and hall would be vacant and the risk was worthwhile.

Seems to me the best course of action is to let the legal process run its course--but, unfortunately that isnt a magic bullet: recall the duke lacrosse case and Mr Nifong. It took a lone blogger a years to demolish Ms Magnums case--the legal authorities were part of the problem, not the solution.

Like most tabloid type headlines, the truth doesnt even make an appearance until well into the process--

--MONDAY'S PAPERS TODAY -- JAMES RICKARDS (@JamesGRickards), investment adviser and one of our fave CNBC guests, in an overnight note to clients: '[T]he impact on the international financial system ... will be immediate. His role as head of the IMF is now untenable. This follows hard upon the announced resignation of the IMF's #2 official ... The combination leaves the IMF leaderless at the most critical time in its existence since the end of World War II. The IMF was a crucial lender in the 2010 Greek bailout and was acting as a neutral referee in assessing fiscal and economic progress in all of the distressed states in the European periphery. To a great extent the bailouts in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and potentially elsewhere were exercises in maintaining confidence ... and now that has been shaken.

Professor, it was the Sofitel, not the Mandarin. Highly doubtful the room was $600 a night much less $3000. Nonetheless, these Euro politicians are known to make off with the mini bars and then protest the later bill.

Don't bellyache folks, that creep has a history. Last time, the rape was found "consensual" and the raped was transfered to another taxpayers financed job. But the American bumpkins never learned to respect their betters, even a lowly maid, wouldn't play ball(?).

Kudos to NY cops who caught him just before the airplane was closed, and minutes before departure. If the creep had returned to France, the poor maid would be branded a liar, a blackmailer.

On the other hand, the Socialist has fought so hard for the down troddens, roughing it in a $3000 taxpayers paid hotel room, the least we could do was to look the other way. The maid should understand he was fighting for her and should feel honored to serve.

Hey, let's consider for a minute that DSK's allies are right and this is a Sarkosy plot to discredit the IMF chief.

Let's say Sarko formulated a plot to entice this guy into attacking the woman. They spend days finding a hot babe, put her in a French maid's outfit, time it just right so she goes into the hotel room right when the old horn dog is coming out of the shower. (Of course in this scenario, she's not a victim, but an operative, so we aren't worried much about her present state of mind.)

If in fact it is what DSK's allies say it is, then it is a pretty well executed plot. DSK is now off the table in the next election and the Socialist Party is in disarray.

Under this scenario, the best thing that can happen (for Sarkosy) is that DSK gets diplomatic immunity and returns to France where the Socialist Party eats itself alive.

If Sarko's enemies are right, Sarko has demonstrated himself to be a pretty effective political operative while overcoming what may be the worst approval numbers in Western politics.

From what I can tell from the code, in New York "criminal sexual act" (one of the charges against Straus-Kahn, of course) is defined as "oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct." The article doesn't specify which is being alleged.

Personally, I think both of those, when involving force, is a physical violation.

I consider myself blessed by fate to be able to take the odd vacation and stay at a Holiday Inn. The whole concept of a $3000 dollar hotel room boggles my mind. It's like reading about those $100 hamburgers in luxury restaurants. It's expense for the sake of expense. What services and luxuries does a $3000 hotel provide? I like to think that in such hotels, the maid, who's a dead ringer for Penelope Cruz, wakens you gently in the morning by means of a blow job. Probably not the best place to go on your honeymoon though. Is there any person in this community who can explain the utility of a $3000 hotel?

Hell, I don't even like contemplating a $3000 mortgage payment, whether I could afford it or not, so I'm with you on the $3000 hotel room. But then, I'm not rich, and more important, that type of outlay on that sort of thing just isn't for me. However, other people have different priorities, so...whatever. It is irritating to think of subsidizing that, assuming that we do, to whatever extent we do.

At around 1pm on Saturday afternoon, a 32-year-old chambermaid entered the suite at the luxurious hotel on West 44th Street in the heart of New York's theatre district. She had been instructed to clean and was told it was empty.

I think someone here wondered about locking the door. Even this article doesn't specify, but it could be that he pulled the chain, or engaged the deadbolt, or locked the second lock--any of which would mean you couldn't just grab the doorknob and exit as easily and quickly.

I think someone else wondered why the maid wouldn't prop open the door. Again, the article doesn't say and I can only speculate. That said, I can imagine that if one were cleaning a large suite that you were told was empty, it might actually be SAFER to keep the door closed (which means, in a hotel, it would be locked). Think about it: If you were back cleaning a bedroom, you would want to avoid a situation in which someone could just walk in, quite possibly without your hearing them (plush carpets, anyone?), and...

...possibly assault you, right?

I mean, I don't know what the situation was, what the protocol is. But there are reasonable, alternative explanations, and because of that, I'd be careful about jumping to conclusions.

According to the "about" page on Straus-Kahn's wife's blog, she's writing a book about "the American political life." I wonder if she might find a better market--now--if she were to switch to one about the French political life.

Isn't it interesting that he left his cell phone and "other personal items" behind?

I work in mental health and think I have developed a certain sense - radar -- if you will - about various things here and there with people and behaviors .... a BS detector perhaps?

There is a sense of veracity with the maid's story. Fake stories are -- fakish. They don't fit together right.

The door locking thing is not a problem (chain, dead bolt ... whatever). Note that that may be the basis of one of the charges, unlawful imprisonment.

The fact that he has been described by others as "the great seducer" certainly doesn't cancel out the possibility of the spurned-seducer-becomes-rapist.

In many places in the world hotel maids aren't given much credence, so who knows? There might be a string of hotel maids around the world cheering. (OT - reminds me of the Islamic muckety muck on Nightline the other night declaring that OBL couldn't possibly have had pornography -- after all, he was married [and a devout Muslim]. If I'd been drinking my late night beverage my keyboard would be at the cleaners.)

So, with Elliot and Olivia on the case (could there be forensic evidence on the maid?) we know we have a good story in front of us.

Of course, there is that little diplomatic immunity question nibbling at the edges ....

Innocent until proven guilty (how much will they buy her off with?) but my guess is that he met his match. He may go home never to return here, but a little time in prison would be fit the crime.

In France, if they even bothered to prosecute it (I really doubt they would), he would be guilty until proven innocent, is that right?

The write up in the NY Post mentions that as a perk of his job he was entitled to walk onto any Air France flight without reservations and fly first class. If the flight was booked, tant pis for whoever got bumped. That''s a pretty good perk. The unholy combination of French and socialism probably gave him a huge sense of entitlement that is rarely found outside of Hollywood.

Enough with diplomatic immunity. We should bring back the hallowed custom of droit du seigneur and refashion it for the modern world. A man such as Straus-Kahn with his brilliant mind should be addressing the problems of third world poverty and not squandering his resources in the pursuit of nookie. He has been given the right to board any Air France flight and fly first class without prior reservations. Well and good, but I would suggest more time is wasting seeking sex than making flight reservations. We need the full attention of this gifted public servant. For certain important men such as Clinton, Gore, Straus-Kahn, there should be a waiver in the rape laws. Chambermaids, interns, government clerical workers below G8, waitresses--these women should be deemed in the rapable class for important men. I'm uncertain about co-eds. Certainly not girls from Ivy League schools, but I see no problem with extending that waiver to girls from the Big Ten. With such a right re-imposed, out important public men will be better able to work for a better tomorrow for all of us.